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WARNING: Be careful of a crazy rock throwing driver

When I was coming to work this morning, I had a crazy lady behind me speeding and yelling abuse, weaving in and out of traffic. I gave her the finger which I guess just made her a little bit crankier. She blew her horn all the way down the parkway and would not overtake me. She followed me off the parkway towards to Belconnen and again tailgated me so I could not see her number plate properly. When I stopped at the lights to turn off to Bindubi Street, she lent out her car window and threw a rock at my car and sped off… WHAT kind of psycho has spare rocks in their car??

Anyway.. be careful of small blue holdens that drive erratically down the parkway during peak hour and I guess don’t give them the finger!..

Well I consider anyone throwing rocks, or any other solid object, at a moving vehiclke as dangerous and requiring some intervention. I would hope that plod made a record of the complaint so that if it becomes a series of incidents with a similar description they can move on the person.

Install an immobilizer would be a good start. If you really want to get tricky install a switch that cuts the fuel off under the car somewhere. Even if the thief gets to startt he car, within some metres it will stall, and the toerag won’t know how or why. The toerag will then leave the car and search for smoething that behaves better. The chances of the toerag even stopping to try and figure out the problem is practically nil.

We even used to use a fake rotor button for long term parking. No matter how long a thief looked at the engine and ignition for clues to why it wouldn’t start, without a diagnostic tool there was no way of telling that the rotor was the problem, as it looked like a genuine working one.

Bit more difficult these days, but there are many ways to ensure an engine won’t start unless you’re in charge, from a secret switch that cuts the ignition line (a friend had one installed as a fake trip reset button, you had to push it in and turn it to lock it!).

While I don’t doubt the Police have a responsibility to investigate all burglaries and car thefts, for a moderate cost and some lateral thinking it is perfectly possible to protect yourself against casual crime, and more people should accept that they need to take greater steps to protect their own property in the first case.

Now how many fatalities have happened say in the last 12 months on the road due to risky driving behaviour? For instance, how many have died while crossing a pedestrian crossing because a driver did not stop? A casual scan of Riot Act would find that people have commented on that happening in the last twelve months.

How many have died or were very badly injured in car crashes due to risky driving? Once again, a casual scan of Riot Act (not being the vast database source that the police would have) finds that even recent posts talk about dangerous driving and people getting badly injured from what you call ‘the occasional road incident’.

Now conversely, how many deaths and severe injuries occur from some bloke nicking off with a few Tim Tams at the shopping centre (shop lifting, number 7); some bloke spraying words like ‘dawg’ on a wall (number 6)? Or another guy taking off with a playstation after breaking in?

The general message from the police is that part of enforcement is prevention, which is why you have speed cameras, red light cameras, etc. If someone were to throw rocks on the street and injure a person, that would be considered assault. If someone were throwing rocks at a car, the potential for injury is far greater. Therefore, it makes sense to put that into persepective and PREVENT something as potentially dangerous from happening.

Your job, if you are even actually part of the police force, is not to pick and choose which laws are ‘worthy’ to look up. It is to protect the community and enforce the law – all of it. Out of the list you have provided, the issues law breaking issues that seem to cause the most angst on this website is dangerous driving. I haven’t seen any group comments all agreeing that this ‘shoplifting plague’ has to be lifted. Or vandalism plague or most of what’s on your list. There is a LOT of people who are noticing increasing risky driving behaviour on the roads however. And a LOT of people noticing nothing is being done about it.

If your response, Proud Local, is typical of the police in the ACT, then its out dated and not in touch with the community. Also, if people are noticing that the police are not doing their job (that is, enforcing the law and preventing these deaths and injuries from happening), then people have to get together to change the status quo. It really is not good enough. People throwing rocks? What’s the next point of escalation?

vandam I wasn’t really blaming the cops even though I might have sounded like it. I did say it was a rant (borne of frustration). My point was that police are sadly under-resourced and because of this they have to prioritise jobs. I have family in the AFP so I was assuredley not having a go at the police as a whole and understand the issues you raise – it is the sad reality.

Proud Local – I do know that fingerprints cannot be gleaned from a jumper – where did I say that it could? I said the cretins left a jumper in the back seat and fingerprints. If I was inferring the jumper had fingerprints I would have said “the cretins left a jumper with fingerprints in the back seat”. It’s all in the syntax.

Proudlocal, you forgot #11 – Sit on your arse and pretend like you give a toss.
Aditionally, I think that you would do the local constabulary a huge favour if you no longer spoke from the point of an officer of the law.

People will misconstrue your opinions as that of the General Law Enforcement services in the ACT – something we can all do without dontcha think ?

Not having a go, just expressing my opinion from my personal experiences.

Ever had your trade tools ripped off twice in a year and had a police officer laught in your face when you were describing the contents of the tool box you had stolen. Yes Officer, I said boner – you know a knife that you debone chickens and beef with ? Whats so funny officer ?

In the olden days, they could just take their badges off, and give the thieves a good thumping. I had an ex-senior policeman working for me some years ago, and it was funny to see him descend into puzzled outrage when some of our delightful clients became “obstreperous” (his term). That was usually my cue to zoom out and take over while he stalked back into the back office. He just didn’t have any resources for dealing with such unruly behaviour.

Pelican:
Well stealling a car is easy, getting away with it is easier!

Sure Police can get prints and DNA, but Police can’t just rely on that:

1: They have to ensure that the prints/DNA is on the inside of the car. (mind you there are only a few spots they can get prints off. If not, they get away with it, purely by saying they didn’t get in the car.
2: The offender needs to tell Police that he stole the car. He can say he just sat in it, or was given it by a friend knowing full well that that person isn’t going to tell Police he stole it.
3: The priority to examine the fingerprints/DNA is quite low compared to other crimes such as your murders/robberies/burglaries etc.
4: It takes quite some time to process DNA, in which case if Police satisfy all of the above, the magistrate is not interested because it’s 12months after the fact!

So after examining the above, really the only way Police are going to be able to catch an offender is for them to say they were driving and stole it, or they are pursued by Police.

It’s not a resourcing issue, it’s a legal issue, so don’t blame the cops on this one. Every cop I know out there(which is only a few!) are eager to arrest people for stolen cars. Unfortuantly it’s not that easy.

Anyway back onto the topic, I have an idea…..maybe we could all contribute $1 and have a truck load of rocks dumped on this stupid females car!

Police are always grumbling about Cops’n’murderers shows giving people the idea that porous surfaces will keep collectable finger prints.

Now, why wouldn’t anyone who could, nick a car? It’s not a crime any more, no one’s going to get in trouble for it. Nicking a car used to be something that only very hardened criminals would do. Now, any idiot might as well get in on it.

Eh? Whats your point Pelican? The police called you to say they had found your car. Sounds like a a good result to me. Alright, damaged but not much they can do about that except at least they found it for you.

Finding a car and taking prints isn’t likely to get a prosecution. Chances are the prints are not on the system, or the offenders wore gloves.

What more do you expect us to do? Accuse people randomly?

For the record, a jumper does not contain prints. Flat metal/glass surfaces supply prints and thats about it. CSI has a lot to answer for.

That was a close shave. Where do these people come from? Rock throwing incidents involving cars have ended in deaths so it is not a minor issue. I will be giving blue Holdens a wide berth (although hubby would say he would give Holdens a wide berth anyway). 🙂

It is doubtful that the police would follow this up. My daughter’s car was stolen from the front of our house and we still have not heard anything from the police. We only knew it was stolen because we got a call in the wee hours of the morning to say did we know where our car was? It was down near a shopping centre with major damage after the mindless cretins took it on a joy ride. Was a write-off. The police have pretty much done nothing and appear to view it as a too common event – when did we start drawing a line on crime and why are there not enough resources. The idiots even left a jumper in the back seat and fingerprints but I assume the police ran DNA and prints and maybe they are not in the system.